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Baldguy's Club Champion Fitting - Dallas

Nippon Shafts
I've been contemplating making a visit there for a month or two now..... If I see a promotion, I'm going to jump on it!
 
WardF said:
Nice write-up my fitting is tomorrow with them at this same location--looking forward to it all.
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Rescheduled mine for next week due to some other conflicts--looking forward to it.
 
baldguy said:
I'm glad you guys enjoyed the writeup :)

One important takeaway from this process for me that I didn't really mention - the shaft played a much larger role in my consistency than I ever imagined it could. For me, the shafts that the fitter settled on were so much more consistent and felt so much better that it had the same net effect as increasing the forgiveness of the clubhead.

I honestly believe that before someone decides on their own to go get some different irons, they should find a really good fitter like Club Champion and see what happens. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing, but if swapping to a properly fitted shaft can help you hit the center of the face a lot more often... the results could be the same or even better.
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This is what I've been trying to tell people here for some time. There may be little difference between two brand's 120 gram shafts for someone, but there will likely be a significant difference for someone between an 85 gram shaft and a 120 gram shaft.

The same thing happened to me at my fitting. I was hitting RBZ irons with stock 85 gram shafts and was all over the place. A little lead tape to increase the swingweight (and overall weight) literally cut my dispersion in half.

I don't think there is much difference between stiff and x either. I might be losing some distance with x shafts in my woods, but I find fairways a lot more often with them.

I'm not advocating that everyone could/should hit heavy shafts or x flex shafts, but I am advocating trying other options besides stock shafts. Especially in game improvement sets since they typically come with fly fishing rods for shafts.
 
Im getting an iron fitting at the one in Orlando on July 5. Hoping that its what in need to get me to that next level. Im an 8 right now and the right clubs will be one less variable.

Capitalism: God's way of determining who is smart and who is poor!
 
Nice write-up. I did a pretty extensive iron fitting a few months ago and it was really eye-opening to see how much difference getting the right shaft makes. I geek out on all the numbers too, but the bottom line is this stuff works. Hope you hit them well!
 
Great write BG.

I went to their DC location a few weeks ago for an iron fitting.

I had pretty much the same experience as you did. And I agree with you 1000% on the lie/length board missing. I know that is very low tech compared to all the LM data.

But I'm tall like you 6'5". The days of just saying I'll need +1" and 2*Upright are gone since all the OEM's are constantly producing sets with different lengths, lofts and lies from the past.

I tried to do as much research as I could on my current irons standard specs ahead of time and even sent the serial number to TMAG to ask them the exact length. Turned out it was 3/4 longer than the stock RocketBladez spec which then made it 1.25 longer than my XHot I believe.

So I was totally open to what length he recommended. He watched me hit a +1 in the SteelFiber. One thing he was concerned about is what that would do to the SW putting it close to D8. However when I ordered the irons my rep at TMAG said they would find lighter heads for the longer shaft bringing it down to a D4 SW.


But overall like you I was very impressed with all the offerings. Pretty much had every shaft you could want to hit.

Will be looking forward to your wood fitting as well.
 
interesting. they put me at an E1 swing weight for all irons. It was hard to argue for less though, given the numbers we saw at that swing weight. I thoguht we would try to raise or lower it... but I guess when they find a config that gets you hitting the center of the face nearly every time, they stick with it. regardless of whatever "conventional wisdom" I had in mind :)
 
baldguy said:
interesting. they put me at an E1 swing weight for all irons. It was hard to argue for less though, given the numbers we saw at that swing weight. I thoguht we would try to raise or lower it... but I guess when they find a config that gets you hitting the center of the face nearly every time, they stick with it. regardless of whatever "conventional wisdom" I had in mind :)
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It is interesting. As you had mentioned that was from the +1 inch C-taper shaft and the standard head they measured that club after seeing the right numbers--so no change or adjustment to get there--but if the numbers were right why change.
 
Great write up. I keep reading these and really want to get a full fitting done at one of these places. Can't wait to read how the top end fitting works out for you.
 
Thanks for the write up. This looks way cool! Just what I need--one more way to part with my money!


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Very cool experience and really didn't know much about them till your post. Well done and thank you!

BTW.....I had nothing to do with the injury.....nothing!!!
 
Did my fitting today. Just adding some highlights.

Irons: Light weight is really bad for me--I often loose the club in the swing and dispersions is bad. Clubs in the 120 gram range were all good for me Ctaper, DG S400, but the standout for me on results and feel with the Nippon Modus 3 120 S.

Driver: Kuro Kage Tour edition Black (not the standard black) 70X --I don't have a really fast driver speed either today probably averages around 103--I can crank it up to 105 and keep decent control when needed, but I was not here to make numbers so I just swung the "hit the fairway" swing" to get good fitting results. I fully expected to be put in a stiff shaft based on my speeds, but the fitter was basing on the results and trackman versus the generic swing speed recommendations. He also steered me away from the ultra light shafts, based on the results in the 60gram range. We also moved away from the very low torque shafts based on my swing-I think this one is 3.0

Woods: Kuro Kage Black (the regular black) 80x-- I am really glad I just swang these instead of asking beforehand, because I would have thought by the name this would be rebar--it was not--very good consistent shots.
Hybrid: Kuro Kage Silver Hyb 100 X --wow heavier than I have ever tried on a hybrid--but it was just so smooth!

Wedge--I fit to the RTX just to see what was best for me in terms of bounce-we tested with the bounce and a lie board and he had me at 1 dot bounce. Recommended the Same iron shafts.

Putter recommendation: this was a fun one since I have been playing a mallet for some time now--recommended a blade with 45-60* toe hang. We basically determined I was putting with an opened face push to make the mallet work--compensating from the natural stroke. I guess this is why we do fittings.

Here is a question if any Shaft guys read this--I may seek the equivalent in the Miyasaki line of shafts--they did not have them there as an option, but I think I can mimic the specs to get similar results.
 
find a location near you and jump on their current Fathers Day discount. You won't be sorry.
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i was looking at the houston location website and i can't for the life of me find a father's day promo. what's the promo so that i can call and verify if they have it.
 
yessir, that is the Father's Day discount I was referring to. I'm pretty sure it applies to all of their locations and IMO is a great deal. I was originally just going to get the irons fitting, but when I saw that discount I ended up with a full bag fitting for about the same price. Very much worth it IMO.
 
I emailed Trevor a few days ago asking about any upcoming discounts for a possible Father's Day gift and he said there was nothing going at the Houston location.

I sent him another email just now with that link to see what he says about it. It shows 5/20/14 and my email was after that. Maybe he just wasn't aware of it at the time since it was 5/22 when I sent the email.
 
-CRW- said:
I emailed Trevor a few days ago asking about any upcoming discounts for a possible Father's Day gift and he said there was nothing going at the Houston location.

I sent him another email just now with that link to see what he says about it. It shows 5/20/14 and my email was after that. Maybe he just wasn't aware of it at the time since it was 5/22 when I sent the email.
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Yeah I am sure they will honor the link above as it calls out Texas locations specifically in the ad.
 
WardF said:
Yeah I am sure they will honor the link above as it calls out Texas locations specifically in the ad.
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Trevor from the Houston Club Champion said that ad was sent out to the Dallas area only to get people into the new location.

It was not meant for Houston, but he said they would honor it. He said it had to be done before Father's Day though. So I don't know if they will keep honoring it or not.

They should have known that it would be distributed when they posted it on the Internet. And why list Houston at the bottom of the flyer if it wasn't their plan to offer it there as well???
 
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-CRW- said:
Trevor from the Houston Club Champion said that ad was sent out to the Dallas area only to get people into the new location.

It was not meant for Houston, but he said they would honor it. He said it had to be done before Father's Day though. So I don't know if they will keep honoring it or not.

They should have known that it would be distributed when they posted it on the Internet. And why list Houston at the bottom of the flyer if it wasn't their plan to offer it there as well???
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I think that may have been a bit of a sales tactic. the old "sure, I'll do you a solid on this if you come see me" trick. The email I got about the discount was from the TXGA and while it may have been intended for the Dallas area only, the TXGA serves the whole state and like you said it even mentions Houston in the ad as well. I've heard of other locations around the country offering the same deal (I'm pretty sure someone in Northeast posted about it upthread). I'd be willing to bet that any location would honor the deal if you ask for it.
 
Update: Fitting part deux

Update: Fitting part deux

Today I went back for the driver fitting. I didn't take any additional pictures this time, but here's how it went:

Christian, the same fitter I worked with last time, had the hitting bay ready for me when I arrived. I warmed up some more with 6i and a hybrid and we fired up the Trackman to start taking measurements. I asked him if I could try some other iron shafts that I have been pondering over the last couple of weeks. He was fine with the idea, and we hit 4 more shafts about 6-8 times each. The Nippon 130 was decent, but I wasn't a fan of the feel. The Aldila RIP Tour was still good, but not any measurable amount better than the c-taper even though it did feel the best to me. The UST Recoil (which was top on my ponder list) worked well but the feel was not as good as what I've been reading online. We proved (yet again) that the c-taper 120 stiff is the best shaft for me. Having satisfied my own curiosity, we moved on to the task at hand.

Christian had me take some swings with my gamer. Stock Bio Cell + with the 6Q3 red tie in stiff flex. The numbers looked decent, but Christian said it looked like I was fighting a bit of a steep swing and he thought a heavier shaft would do well for me. We then proceeded to cycle through no less than 15 different driver shaft changes in the Bio + head. I hit several I've read about and drooled over online. I hit some I've never heard of and some that I had already hit before. Some shorter than my stock one, some longer. There were far too many to list from memory and he had me working too hard to write this stuff down :). We kept going back to the Fujikura Pro Tour Spec 73 x-flex. it just consistently produced the best numbers. Christian said that he felt I needed something more butt-stiff than tip-stiff. Of all the shafts I hit, this one fit that profile the best and the numbers proved he was right.

Now that we had the shaft figured out, we went through driver heads. I hit the Bio+, regular Bio, i25, G25, Big Bertha, and the Jetspeed. The best numbers came from the Bio+ and the Bertha. the i25 was a close third. Surprisingly (to me, maybe not to others reading this), the jetspeed was a terrible fit. Yes, my club head speed went up but my ball speed and smash factor was way down. I tended to hit under the ball with that one. Christian decided the head was just too light for me. He favored the big bertha quite a bit, but ultimately said that he thought I would be just as happy with this shaft in the BB or the Bio+.

Once again I had worn myself out! I joked with Christian that they needed to have a "out of shape fat guy" plan that split the full bag fitting into 4 or 5 sessions :). He actually responded that it was no problem and we would reschedule fwy and hybrids for next week. I did not argue with him... I'm going back next Tuesday to finish up.

Overall, this session left me pretty well-informed about the things that do and do not work well for me. As much as I/we like to drool over shiny new gear on the internet, there really is no substitute for measuring the performance of a club with your own swing. I wonder how many people give up on golf or just accept their bad play because of equipment that doesn't remotely fit their swing. The difference between the wrong shaft in the wrong head and the right combo was really pretty amazing.

oh, and sorry guys - no golf channel hotties visited this time :alien:
 
baldguy said:
Today I went back for the driver fitting. I didn't take any additional pictures this time, but here's how it went:

Christian, the same fitter I worked with last time, had the hitting bay ready for me when I arrived. I warmed up some more with 6i and a hybrid and we fired up the Trackman to start taking measurements. I asked him if I could try some other iron shafts that I have been pondering over the last couple of weeks. He was fine with the idea, and we hit 4 more shafts about 6-8 times each. The Nippon 130 was decent, but I wasn't a fan of the feel. The Aldila RIP Tour was still good, but not any measurable amount better than the c-taper even though it did feel the best to me. The UST Recoil (which was top on my ponder list) worked well but the feel was not as good as what I've been reading online. We proved (yet again) that the c-taper 120 stiff is the best shaft for me. Having satisfied my own curiosity, we moved on to the task at hand.

Christian had me take some swings with my gamer. Stock Bio Cell + with the 6Q3 red tie in stiff flex. The numbers looked decent, but Christian said it looked like I was fighting a bit of a steep swing and he thought a heavier shaft would do well for me. We then proceeded to cycle through no less than 15 different driver shaft changes in the Bio + head. I hit several I've read about and drooled over online. I hit some I've never heard of and some that I had already hit before. Some shorter than my stock one, some longer. There were far too many to list from memory and he had me working too hard to write this stuff down :). We kept going back to the Fujikura Pro Tour Spec 73 x-flex. it just consistently produced the best numbers. Christian said that he felt I needed something more butt-stiff than tip-stiff. Of all the shafts I hit, this one fit that profile the best and the numbers proved he was right.

Now that we had the shaft figured out, we went through driver heads. I hit the Bio+, regular Bio, i25, G25, Big Bertha, and the Jetspeed. The best numbers came from the Bio+ and the Bertha. the i25 was a close third. Surprisingly (to me, maybe not to others reading this), the jetspeed was a terrible fit. Yes, my club head speed went up but my ball speed and smash factor was way down. I tended to hit under the ball with that one. Christian decided the head was just too light for me. He favored the big bertha quite a bit, but ultimately said that he thought I would be just as happy with this shaft in the BB or the Bio+.

Once again I had worn myself out! I joked with Christian that they needed to have a "out of shape fat guy" plan that split the full bag fitting into 4 or 5 sessions :). He actually responded that it was no problem and we would reschedule fwy and hybrids for next week. I did not argue with him... I'm going back next Tuesday to finish up.

Overall, this session left me pretty well-informed about the things that do and do not work well for me. As much as I/we like to drool over shiny new gear on the internet, there really is no substitute for measuring the performance of a club with your own swing. I wonder how many people give up on golf or just accept their bad play because of equipment that doesn't remotely fit their swing. The difference between the wrong shaft in the wrong head and the right combo was really pretty amazing.

oh, and sorry guys - no golf channel hotties visited this time :alien:
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Awesome read, glad things are working out for you. Makes me even more excited to get my driver dialed in. After getting my irons all figured out, my driver and 3w are the only clubs I haven't had anyone look at. Coincidentally they are my least consistent clubs haha you give me hope!
 
Great to hear the updates, it confirmed my belief that you should be in the heavier X shaft. Would have never thought about the tip stiffness etc, so this is why we use professional fitters!
 
-CRW- said:
Trevor from the Houston Club Champion said that ad was sent out to the Dallas area only to get people into the new location.

It was not meant for Houston, but he said they would honor it. He said it had to be done before Father's Day though. So I don't know if they will keep honoring it or not.

They should have known that it would be distributed when they posted it on the Internet. And why list Houston at the bottom of the flyer if it wasn't their plan to offer it there as well???
Click to expand...
Trevor is a good fitter as well as a buddy of mind, he will honor it.
 
nikkoplease said:
i was looking at the houston location website and i can't for the life of me find a father's day promo. what's the promo so that i can call and verify if they have it.
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Niko, call Trevor and mention the ad. Tell him Jack Flores recommended you and he will take care of you.
 
Yeah we good. Scheduled for next sat 9am


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